"I'll take the touchdowns. It's a good feeling. And on a TD, you don't get hit on the other side."

On Monday night's touchdown catch, a 27-yard strike from Rivers down the middle of the field, Chambers said there was a defensive breakdown.

"Vincent (Jackson) and I were lined up pretty tight," Chambers said. "The corner and linebacker ran into each other leaving the safety with a choice to make.

"When he went with Vincent, my hand shot up in the air. But Philip already saw what was happening."

NOT-SO-SPECIAL TEAMS

The Jets gained 291 yards on nine kickoff returns, with Leon Washington and Jerricho Cotchery setting up short touchdown drives with returns of 94 and 54 yards, respectively.

"I'm sure the return coverage will be the first thing we see in films and the first thing we work on this week," said Marques Harris, who normally is on every kickoff return coverage but was limited to just one shift because he was seeing regular duty at outside linebacker.

And that was part of the problem, according to specialist Kassim Osgood.

"We need Carlos Polk back," Osgood said "We've got a bunch of young guys getting a lot of reps on defense and having to double duty. They have to realize they have to work as hard on special teams as they do on defense."

The results were fairly predictable; they went 1-for-3 in securing a possession.

The most interesting call came after New York scored less than two minutes into the second quarter to cut the Chargers' lead to 17-14. Feely popped the ball high in the air, but after a scramble, the Chargers' Harris wrestled away the ball. In the scrum, somebody ripped Harris' helmet off.

HART HAS HAND

Strong safety Clinton Hart, who had surgery on his left hand last Monday, had an interception sail through his grip against the Jets.

"It's obvious it wasn't 100 percent," Hart said. "I wanted that interception, but I couldn't close my fingers around the cast."

As for the Jets quarterback, Hart said: "He's still Favre. He zipped one past me in the end zone. But the defense got rolling. We needed that. We want to end September 2-2. It's not pride, we have a standard we want to keep up."

MISCELLANY

-- Chargers punter Mike Scifres didn't have to make a kick until a minute remained in the third quarter. Last week, he only had one punt against Denver, and he has only seven punts in three games.

-- The attendance of 68,922 was the largest to watch a Chargers home game.

-- Chargers left tackle Marcus McNeill, out since Aug. 4 with bulging discs near his neck, started for the first time this season and played the entire game.

-- The Chargers defense didn't yield a first-quarter touchdown for the 10th straight regular season game. The streak dates to the 2006 season finale against Arizona.

-- Seven of Antonio Gates' eight catches this season have gone for first downs. The other one would have, as it got seven yards on third-and-7, but he fumbled.

-- Darren Sproles is averaging 36.1 yards per kickoff return, second in the league (253 yards, seven returns).

-- The Chargers have scored touchdowns on just two of their six red zone trips, which is tied for the fourth-worst mark in the NFL.